Often when we look at our world we may see so many things that cause us to be concerned for the future. We know that our world is tainted with sin and that human nature is susceptible to self-centeredness and selfishness. Left on their own, people will place their own desires ahead of any commands of the Lord. When that happens, we will see the world drift into sin, which will lead to a snowball effect away from the Lord’s standards and toward ultimate judgment. Christians who see this may conclude that judgment is coming, whether it will be immediate and targeted, delayed and long-term, or even the Second Coming of Christ.

What we truly want to see happen when our world or our society rebels against God is a spiritual revival. The answer to sin and selfishness is to confess our sin and turn back to the Lord. For a nation to escape judgment, we would need to see many people coming to Christ and many Christians to commit to following the Lord more closely. When a revival breaks out, a nation or a society will emerge from a sinful past and find renewal in their relationship with the Lord. This can delay or even suspend divine judgment

This happened with Judah several times. We see one of these in today’s reading, as the reigns of Manasseh and Amon were followed by that of Josiah. Manasseh was born during the extended years given to his father Hezekiah by the Lord, but he ended up rejecting what his father stood for and followed other gods. He set up idols and led Judah into the religions of the surrounding nations and away from the Lord. This led to the Lord’s judgment on Manasseh, which, by God’s grace,  resulted in Manasseh’s personal repentance and actions to erase his wrongdoing. His repentance was genuine, but the damage he had caused for his family and nation was severe.

The reign of his son, Amon, shows the limits of the change in Judah. Amon followed his father’s evil example rather than his late-life good example. He was so evil that his own servants revolted and killed him. The land was left in turmoil, with an eight-year-old on the throne and the religious life of Judah confused. Josiah, the son of Amon, finally carried out a true revival in Judah. He restored the Temple and reestablished the sacrifices and worship of the Lord. Sadly, this would be the last time Judah would turn to the Lord. Soon, the accumulated habits of sin would lead the nation to judgment at the hands of Babylon.

As we see in Judah’s example, revival and restoration is never so far away that they cannot be attained, and sin and judgment are never so far away that they cannot be carried out. The willingness of a people, whether a nation, a church, or a family, to humble themselves and submit to the Lord determines their fate. The Lord is gracious and forgiving, but He is also holy and just. If we want to see a change in our own culture and society, we need to begin with our own turn to the Lord in repentance. As we do this, our prayer should be for others to join us in returning to the Lord. When the Holy Spirit works through the people of God to bring cleansing, forgiveness, and a hunger to serve God, the dynamics of a group change, much as they did in Judah. Our heartfelt cry needs to be to draw closer to Christ, to give up our own “idols” that distract us from His service, and to see the Spirit working in those among us and around us to bring people closer to the Lord and prepare them to serve as He leads. That will lead to the kind of change we want to see in ourselves, our churches, and our land.

When difficult times occur, people have an instinct to try to pull family, friends, and neighbors together to overcome the challenges. They may try to figure out the reasons for their trials, support those with whom they have lived and worked, and renew old relationships that might be able to be salvaged. Attempts may be made to reestablish relationships that are broken, strengthen areas that have been weakened, and restore traditions that have fallen into disuse. This can provide renewal that allows the family, organization, or state to revive and regain their place in society.

King Hezekiah had restored the Temple worship and the priestly and Levitical orders in their places within that worship. As he was putting his revival in place, the northern kingdom of Israel was falling into the hands of Assyria. Many of the residents of Israel had been scattered throughout the Assyrian Empire, and people from other nations had been moved into the territory of the northern kingdom. Judah would also be challenged by Assyria, but in the meantime Hezekiah sought ways to reunite and strengthen Judah. With the Temple restored, the king saw an opportunity to bring what was left of Israel back into a relationship with Judah.

Hezekiah sent letters to the people of Judah and of Israel, including the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh who often served as representatives of the northern kingdom, inviting them to come observe the Passover in Jerusalem. His impassioned plea was a call for those who had abandoned the Temple and its service of God to return and worship the Lord. The recent judgment on Israel would have provided an impetus for the people to seek the Lord again.

While Hezekiah’s invitation was mocked by many of those encountered, representatives of several tribes responded with humility. They came to Jerusalem and united with the people of Judah to follow the Lord’s commands and keep the Passover. They began by cleansing the unauthorized and pagan altars in the city to make it ready for the Passover. They then observed the feast, from the slaughter of the lambs to the seder meal and the following seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, then continued seven more days. The entire event brought great joy to the united people of Judah and Israel and brought the back into their relationship with the Lord.

Even amid turmoil and confusion, King Hezekiah saw the need to reunite Israel and took the initiative to bring it about. With Assyria rampaging through the Near East, the fate of many nations was conquest. By asking the remnants of the northern kingdom to come and join with Judah in worshipping the Lord, Hezekiah sought to draw together the ancestral tribes to stand with God. This may have helped Judah in their own conflict with Assyria, even as they saw the Lord work on their behalf to deliver them.

We need not wait for disaster to strike to seek to bring about restoration of old relationships and strengthening of others. As with Hezekiah’s invitation, calling people to join together again to serve the Lord can bring healing and reunion. It also may allow us to withstand some of the trials we are going through as we help each other stand firm through our struggles. The union and reunion of people under God’s care can lead us to success in our lives here and now and a faithful walk into our future with Christ.

Whenever a family fights among themselves it creates an ugly picture. Even when the two parties are estranged we look at those in-house fights with a combination of sorrow and disdain. This becomes even more apparent when it is a nation that is divided and fighting with itself. A civil war often brings about more suffering and more evil than a war between two competitive nations. As we see the population that once was united harden into two separate camps, we are grieved for the loss of brotherhood that has led to conflict. The losses and suffering that comes from these conflicts saddens us since it could have been avoided by wiser actions at the beginning.

At the time King Ahaz took the throne of Judah, the nations of Israel and Judah had been separated for two centuries, but they continued to share history. They had warred with each other, remained in an uneasy truce, and even joined together for war or commerce. The ties between the two nations were often strained, but there remained a common ancestry and history that linked them together. Unfortunately, the greatest difference between them was their allegiance to the Lord and Him alone. Many of Judah’s kings demonstrated such a commitment to the Lord, while Israel’s kings chose to follow others gods and at best saw the Lord as one of their many options.

King Ahaz was a young man when he took the throne, and he was immediately influenced by Israel and the nations around him. He made images of other gods and worshipped them, and even engaged in some of the most depraved practices of pagan religions. He led Judah so far from the Lord that the time came for judgment. He was defeated in battle by Aram, who inflicted heavy losses on Judah, followed by a major defeat at the hands of Israel. King Pekah of Israel killed 120,00 warriors in one day, and killed several leaders of Judah. All this was the result of the nation abandoning God.

The invading army of Israel took 200,000 captives, along with much spoil from Judah. The author of Chronicles notes that these captives were relatives” of their conquerors, not necessarily by direct links but by the fact that they were part of the people from whom both Judah and Israel came. This led to a rebuke from the prophet Oded and several leaders of the city of Samaria. Taking all these captives, especially since most were women and children, went beyond what Israel had the right to do. They had been given victory by the Lord due to the idolatry and disobedience of Ahaz and Judah, not because of their own righteousness, for they were no better. The soldiers accepted the rebuke and not only released the prisoners, but tended their wounds, fed them, and led them to a safe point from which they could return to their homes.

The dissension between the divided nations of Israel and Judah is a sad saga in the history of the nation. That dual history would soon come to a close when Assyria conquered Israel. The split between the two nations was never healed while both existed; only after Judah’s return from exile was there a single nation once again. The fight between the two nations, along with the ongoing apostasy of Israel and the intermittent idolatry of Judah before they too rejected the Lord at the end, show the limits of human ability to maintain peaceful brotherhood. Each nation sought its own way, ultimately even over God’s way. Their fate reminds us of the necessity of keeping our relationships with Christ and with our fellow Christians on the right path, with a goal of showing the unity and love we have as part of God’s family.

As we go through life, we make a lot of decisions. While that statement seems like a trite and obvious one, it is something we don’t often think about. We look at the events of our lives as a continuing sequence of ups and downs, and many times we just think that “life happens” and we just have to roll with it. However, when we stop and think about what has happened in our lives, we start to see that our own decisions had a major impact on us. Whether it was a good decision that led to a positive result, or a bad decision that brought us into a time of trouble, we are often more responsible for where we are in life than we think.

This doesn’t mean that God is not firmly in control. He takes our decisions into account as He sees what is going to happen in the world. We never catch the Lord by surprise, but we still are given the opportunity to freely choose many aspects of our lives. Certainly there are some we have no control over, from the moment of our birth until the day of our death, but the Lord created us as free and responsible agents so He allows us to be a part of His planning for the world. I don’t know exactly how this all works together, since I am not God, but He knows how all of this works together for the purpose He intends.

In today’s reading we see how King Uzziah went from making good choices in his life to making some seriously poor choices. Uzziah was considered a good king in Judah. He had a very long reign of 52 years. Although only a teenager when he began to reign, Uzziah found success in battle against the enemies of Israel. He also took the spoils of war and the tribute of those he defeated and used them to build up the defenses of Jerusalem. He became rich in livestock and the produce of the field. He built a substantial army and equipped them with all they needed for battle. Judah became prosperous under his leadership.

All this success came because Uzziah followed the Lord as the prophet Zechariah advised him. (This is not the Zechariah who was one of the Minor Prophets; that Zechariah came after the Exile.) The writer of Chronicles tells us that God made Uzziah prosper as long as he sought the Lord. In every area, Uzziah saw the nation grow under his rule, and saw his own wealth and prestige grow with it. Sadly, with this increase in personal and national power came pride. Uzziah was the king of Judah, but he wanted to offer the incense on the altar in the Temple. This was in the Holy Place, an area which only the priests could access. Eighty priests opposed Uzziah, at risk of their lives, and the anger of Uzziah was turned on them. Immediately Uzziah broke out with leprosy, becoming unclean, and he was forced to flee rapidly as his disease became apparent.

Uzziah would suffer from leprosy the rest of his life, never able to approach the Temple or to be in the presence of others. One bad decision had undercut a lifetime of good ones. While the judgment came from the Lord, it was the result of Uzziah’s own poor choice. He serves as an example to all who read the Word of someone who prospered when obedient to the Lord, but whose life was turned upside-down when he chose to disobey. We may not be struck by leprosy when we disobey the Lord or choose a rash, selfish action, but we will suffer the consequences of our choices. We also will find blessing when we live a life of obedience before the Lord. Life requires careful thought, wise decisions, and a willingness to follow the Lord.

One of the greatest needs of the church today is strong adult role models for our children. So much of our society targets children with messages of rebellion, self-centeredness, and even danger for them. As they watch videos, surf social media, and talk with their friends they are bombarded with messages that lead them down pathways that are designed to destroy their lives. So many people and organizations want to wean children from the truth and from reality and lead them to think they can remake their world just by defining themselves and the world around them in fantasy terms. They lack roots in Word of God or even in the truth of the world they live in.

King Joash became king of Judah when he was just seven years old. He had lived in hiding from his grandmother, Athaliah, who had usurped the throne on the death of her son Ahaziah. While he would have had training in the Law and in what it meant to be a king growing up, at seven he would scarcely have absorbed these lessons. Placed on the throne of Judah, there were any number of people and groups that would want to sway the king to their way of thinking. This placed the kingdom at risk, since whomever controlled the king could carry out their own plans for Judah.

In the providence of God, Joash had been put into hiding by the priest Jehoiada, who was probably the one who oversaw his training. When Joash became king, it was Jehoiada who organized the ceremony to enthrone Joash and depose Athaliah. Given the number of people involved and the smoothness of the transition, Jehoiada had likely spent the intervening years organizing the people, especially the armed guards and the priests. Jehoiada arranged for Joash to be declared king, for Athaliah the usurper to be executed, and for the people and leaders to commit themselves to serving the Lord.

Joash showed his commitment to the Lord by arranging for the restoration of the Temple. He placed responsibility on the priests and Levites to collect the annual offering from the people of Judah and to arrange for the work to be done. In this instance, he actually had to rebuke his mentor, Jehoiada, for not encouraging the Levites to bring in the offerings and get the work done. Joash found a way to ensure the offering was given, collected, and spent for the repair of the Temple. Working together with Jehoiada, the king finished the work, including supporting utensils, and the Temple services could be done properly once more.

The author comments that Joash “did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest” (24:2). The influence of the priest guided Joash as he grew and ruled over Judah. Serving as a role model and a teacher, Jehoiada helped Joash become a king who was faithful to the Lord and who served both God and his people well. As long as Joash had the example of Jehoiada, he was led in a path of obedience to God.

Sadly, after the death of Jehoiada Joash wandered away from the Lord. He began to listen to flatterers who worshipped other gods and encouraged Joash to ignore the prophets of the Lord. He even has Jehoiada’s son killed for rebuking his disobedience to the Lord’s commands. This ending of Joash’s story shows us how critical the role of our advisors and teachers is. With his positive role model gone, and ungodly men gaining his attention, Joash abandoned the Lord and eventually fell victim to an assassination plot. The value of those who guide us through life cannot be overestimated, and we should seek to be that kind of example to those whom we influence.

Our world can be a frightening place. As I write this, current events include wars in Europe and the Middle East, terrorist attacks scattered throughout the world, economic distress on a global scale, and many smaller flashpoints that grab our attention. These events are causing many people to worry and even panic, wondering what will happen and how their lives may be affected. While wars may be far from some of the wealthier parts of the world, riots and other attacks go on in the streets of major cities and other populous areas. The unrest of the world shakes our confidence and makes us feel unsafe.

This has been a common occurrence throughout the history of the world. There have been few times when there have been large areas that were essentially peaceful, and the entire world has never been fully at peace. We see as we read the Bible that the ancient world, from the earliest days of Israel through the New Testament, could be a violent place. Major empires rose and fell, conquering other lands and being conquered themselves. When the nation of Israel rose in the days after the Exodus, they settled in an area of the Middle East called the Fertile Crescent, which was a highly prized area for travel between regions and a place where supplies could be acquired. This land remained significant to the days of the Roman Empire and beyond.

In 2 Chronicles 20 we see one instance of an attempt to gain control of this region. The nations east of Judah, Moab, Ammon, and Edom, joined together to invade Judah. They approached Judah from the south in great numbers, and word of this attack reached King Jehoshaphat. Knowing the strength of his enemies, Jehoshaphat was fearful, knowing that this massed army was a dangerous threat to his nation. Judah did not have the military strength to stand against them on their own, so the king needed to find a way for Judah to resist the attack.

The king knew exactly what he needed to do. He determined to seek the Lord, and called a national fast to pray and seek the Lord’s help against this threat. Jehoshaphat recognized that the Lord had power over all nations of the world, which He had shown in bringing Israel into the land in the first place. Jehoshaphat reminded the Lord of His promise to deliver His people if they came before Him and sought His face, confessing their sin and their need for divine help. He asked the Lord to fulfill His promise to deliver His people, for only He had the power to do this.

A prophetic word came to Jehoshaphat through Jahaziel, a Levite who was likely a singer, who assured king and people that they had no reason to fear this great horde coming to attack them. The Lord would deliver them, and He would do so without the need for Judah’s army to even go to battle. There would be no doubt that this deliverance came directly from God. Everything unfolded as predicted, and Judah witnessed the miraculous deliverance of the Lord, carrying away vast amounts of spoils on top of that.

When we face overwhelming challenges in our lives, we need to have the same confidence in God that Jehoshaphat and Judah did. While we may not see a miracle or have our opposition completely eliminated, we will see the Lord at work and know that He is with us. Our victory may not always be an earthly one, but as we look to the Lord we will see how He works on our behalf. We can remain calm and calm our fears with the promises of God and the knowledge that in the end we will be with our Lord forever, delivered from all the struggles of life.

Why do we see Christian leaders who have served the Lord faithfully for many years and who have had a powerful influence on many people fall into sin as their lives wind down? It would seem impossible to us that a solid Christian who has taken a firm stance for Christ could possibly turn after other ways. The human heart can waver, however, and commitments can change as we find new challenges and opportunities in our lives. It is important to remain faithful, no matter how strong you have been in the past.

King Asa shows us what can happen when we turn from trusting in the Lord to trusting in ourselves. His reign began well, as he heeded the warning from the prophet Azariah to seek the Lord. The prophet stated the Lord’s promise that He would be with Asa and the nation as long as they remained faithful to Him. Asa took these words to heart, and through the early days of his reign instituted a national religious reform that changed Judah.

Asa removed the idols from everywhere in Judah, not just in Jerusalem but anywhere they were found. At the same time, he restored the altar and the sacrifices dedicated to the Lord. This began with a national festival, in which people came from all over Judah and from some of the northern tribes to dedicate themselves to the Lord. They made an oath and offered a great number of sacrifices to the Lord. Asa even removed his own grandmother, Maacah, from her position as queen mother due to her idolatry. (“Mother” can mean any female ancestor, and we see in other passages that Maacah was Asa’s grandmother.) While he allowed the high place to remain, Asa remained true to the Lord.

As a result of this reform, King Asa and Judah had rest from their enemies for many years. The Lord delivered them from the threats that arose against them, and He blessed the nation with success and wealth. But when King Baasha of Israel built Ramah in order to keep his people from defecting to Judah, Asa chose to take matters into his own hands. He took the treasures of the Temple and his palace and used them to buy a treaty with Syria. This worked in that it stopped Israel’s building, but it brought a rebuke from the prophet Hanani. He warned Asa that his reliance on his own efforts and on Syria, rather than on the Lord, would lead him into a time of wars. Rather than repent, Asa had Hanani thrown into prison. His relations with his people also changed, as Asa became cruel. The end of his life was marked by battles, abuse, and finally disease.

King Asa was led astray when he stopped looking to the Lord and started looking to himself. When our focus is on what we want and what we can do to get it, we can stop trusting God to show us the way and then open it for us. Self-reliance is a mark of the self-centeredness that comes from sin. While we should develop a desire to do what we can with confidence, that should only follow the Lord’s leading and remain humbly submissive to His will. As we move through our lives, we do not want to lose our connection with the Lord or try to create our own ways where He has shown us where He wants us to go. If we remain faithful to the Lord, we will find that we will be able to handle whatever He gives us, overcoming challenges by His power and gaining success on His terms.

We all have times in our lives when we feel overwhelmed by the challenges we face. The circumstances of our lives may put us in places where all the resources we have look like nothing compared to what we need to overcome what we face. We want to believe that we are able to beat whatever is thrown at us, but the reality of our situation just doesn’t look promising. The opposition, whether people or circumstances, gathers in all its might and appears to be overwhelming.

Taking stock of our own strengths and resources can cause us to look in the wrong direction. As human beings, we are tempted to rely on what we can do and to try to figure out how we can take care of our problems ourselves. That just isn’t adequate when we’re faced with issues and challenges that are bigger than us. We need to find a source of power that is bigger than the very serious obstacles we face in this fallen world.

After the division between the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel, the two continued to fight off and on as long as they maintained their separate existence. It started from the very beginning with Rehoboam and Jeroboam I. Here in 2 Chronicles 13 we see one of the wars that broke out between Judah and Israel. Just after King Abijah took the throne of Judah conflict broke out. Judah gathered 400,000 soldiers for the war, while Israel gathered 800,000. On the surface, this seems like a huge mismatch, with Israel an overwhelming favorite to win the war.

These odds did not faze Abijah in the least. He knew that as much as a strong army was needed for a war, it was not enough unless God was on their side. As he confronted Jeroboam, Abijah pointed out that Judah had remained faithful to the Lord, that the priests and the Temple sacrifices continued in Judah, and that the people of Judah had remained faithful to God. His confidence was not in his own strength or in the size of his army, but in the Lord Almighty.

Jeroboam didn’t respond in words, but with an ambush. His reliance was on his strength, his larger army and his own cunning plans. He expected that he would catch Judah by surprise and overwhelm them, sweeping them from the battlefield and winning an easy victory. He had Judah surrounded with twice as many soldiers, so his confidence in his own power and skill may well have led Jeroboam to expect a crushing victory.

The army of Judah saw their situation, and knew that they were not strong enough on their own to beat back Israel’s assault. Their immediate reaction was to cry out to the Lord. The priests sounded the trumpets, the army sounded a war cry, and the soldiers entered the battle. The author of Chronicles comments that “God defeated Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah” (v. 15). Judah was faced with a challenge greater than their own strength, but with the Lord’s help they were able to gain an overwhelming victory.

When we are faced with a challenge that looks too big for us, we need to remember that our God is bigger than anything we can face. If we come to Him in prayer, we can expect He can give us the victory over anything we face. We must trust the Lord to carry us through our struggles and wait on Him for the victory.

Everything that occurs is in the Lord’s control. That doesn’t mean that He dictates to each person every detail of what they think or do, but He does know the result of all our decisions and work them together into His plan. There is an interplay between what the Lord determines for us and our reactions to our world, but nothing that happens catches Him by surprise. Given this, our free choices still bring about His will, even as we experience it all as coming from our own desires and actions.

Solomon’s pursuit of other gods led him away from the Lord. Although he never stopped worshipping God, he added worship to other gods, many of which came to Israel via his wives. For all his wisdom, Solomon failed to heed his own teaching and follow the Lord faithfully. (We saw some of his regret in the book of Ecclesiastes.) Solomon also failed to pass down true wisdom about the Lord to his children, as we see here in the life of Rehoboam. This was not the way Solomon should have lived, as he knew the Law and what was expected of him. Solomon’s sin, and its effect on the nation, led to judgment from the Lord. That judgment did not come directly from God, but through the actions of Solomon’s son Rehoboam.

The disastrous decision of Rehoboam following the death of his father had permanent consequences for the dynasty of David and for the nation of Israel. Ignoring the older, wiser advisors who had served Solomon, Rehoboam chose to follow the advice of those he grew up with, but who lacked the life experience and wisdom of their elders. The resultant rebellion by the northern tribes to form a separate kingdom of Israel, leaving Rehoboam with Judah and Benjamin, led to a long rivalry between the two kingdoms that would keep either from reaching glory such as David and Solomon gained.

The split in the nation was initiated by the poor decision by Rehoboam. This decision was not forced on him; as far as he was concerned, Rehoboam was making the choice he wanted to make and following the advice he wanted to follow. The Lord knew what he would do, and had already had his prophet predict just what would happen in the aftermath. Even though the Lord did not force Rehoboam to choose one way or the other, He still knew what Rehoboam would choose to do and knew how this would carry forward His plan for Israel. The choice of Rehoboam and the will of God worked together to bring about exactly what God wanted to happen.

The Bible teaches us that God is in control of everything. It also teaches us that people have choices to make in their lives. Both of these are part of the unfolding of human history, so that we are responsible for our choices yet the Lord has everything work out to bring about His will. Theologians have argued for millennia how these two intersect, and no one has a perfect answer. All we know is that they do, and we may one day learn more about this when we reach eternity with Jesus. God will always be greater than our comprehension, so we probably will never have a perfect grasp on how He worked in our lives and in our world. What we will know is the result of His will being done, as we stand before Him redeemed by the blood of Christ and living in His presence forever. We may even meet someone in heaven who played a part in our lives that we never knew, and start to see how human choices and actions brought about the will of God. That will be a cause for us to praise the Lord as we stand before Him and marvel at the wisdom and power of our God.

There is a part of every human heart that wants to touch the eternal. Even those who claim not to believe in any transcendent reality talk about eternity and the universe as if it they were meaningful. One of the reasons so many societies have worshipped nature or created idols is that desire to see and experience the reality of the divine. Yet a god, or an eternal universe, that can be sensed and felt and understood somehow seems to fall short of our human longings. We want that intimate connection, but we also want a God that is bigger than us and our world.

Solomon understood this truth. Even as he built the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem, he knew that this place was not enough. The materials used, the master craftsmanship, the ongoing sacrifices, the burning of incense- all of these would stimulate the senses and enable worshipers to sense physically that there was something special about this place. The structure of the Temple and its visual presence would draw attention, while the sounds and smells would be unlike those found anywhere else in Israel or even in the world. This building was a house constructed for an awesome God.

For all of this, Solomon also knew that the Lord could not be confined by a building. Unlike the limited gods of the nations around them, there was no image in place in the Temple that served as an object of worship. The Ark of the Covenant was called the throne of God, but there was no image seated on it. Rather, it pointed out the reality that God was invisible, above the world, and so infinite that not only could the Temple not contain Him, the highest heavens were not enough to hold God.

For the Jewish worshiper at the Temple, there was this simultaneous truth. God was infinite, invisible, and awesome, far beyond the comprehension of the people He had created. At the same time, their senses were inundated with sounds, sights, and smells that reminded them that God was also the Creator and which provided a way to tangibly sense His presence in and around the sanctuary. The combination of the image of the Temple and the understanding of what it pointed to brought the Israelites into contact, physically and spiritually, with their God.

For Christians, this desire to have both spiritual and physical contact with God has been fulfilled in a fuller way. Our churches certainly serve as places where sight, sound, smell, and taste work together to imprint our senses with inputs that draw our attention. Our two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, both involve sensory events that point to spiritual realities. But the greatest “sensory input” of all time was the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh to live among us as a man who could be seen, heard, and touched. Those who experienced Him in person wrote about their experiences and passed them on to later generations.

In the future all believers will have the opportunity to sense Jesus physically as well as spiritually when we are united with Him, whether at death or when He returns. The fullness of the spiritual reality of God and of the physical reality of the humanity of Jesus will provide us with the best of both worlds. As we are given eternal life in spirit and in body, we will also connect with our Lord in both of those aspects. Eternity in the presence of Christ will be the fulfillment of what the Temple was meant to be, an experience that is both spiritual and sensory and which satisfies all we were created to desire.